One Last Heroic Act
by VerelLupin
Summary: Zuko keeps a promise to Aang by laying down his life. He gains more than he can imagine in his one last heroic act. Kataang - Zutara Frienship Only! Maiko mention. Slight AU.


**I was so drained by my last story that I've had no ideas for Avatar. That changed today. **

**I will have a new story up. Hopefully a multi-chapter but it will be comedy no drama this time, maybe.**

**I get the strangest inspirations when I re-watch Avatar. **

**Enjoy...**

* * *

"No lightning today? What's the matter? Afraid I'll redirect it."

It was madness to taunt Azula but apparently that ran in the family.

"I'll show you lightning," she screamed.

It hurt. It hurt so much more than he had expected. He had known what would happen the moment his body made contact with it. He wasn't naïve, he'd seen how Uncle had fallen. He'd seen how Aang had twitched and convulsed. And yet all that knowledge had not prepared him for the agony. The sheer fraying of his insides while it coursed its path through him and out to the night.

"Zuko!!...Zuko...Zu..." He heard Katara's voice echo as if from a distance.

_"Violence wasn't the answer."_

_"It never is." Aang replied from behind him._

_Zuko half turned to face Aang. "Then I have a question for you. What are you gonna do when you face my father?" Aang stood pensive, his eyes traveling to the sunset bleeding into the water._

_"The same thing you'll do if you meet Azula," Aang replied. The airbender slowly walked to the end of the dock and took a seat. Zuko followed staring at now approaching dusk. Aang's posture was an exact duplicate of Katara's earlier._

_Zuko sat next to him shoulder to shoulder. He tossed a few pebbles into the water, gazing at the ripples growing into each other until they vanished towards the horizon._

_"Zuko, I…can I ask you something?"_

_"Sure."_

_"I don't know what happened when you went with Katara but was she glad to have found the man who killed her mother?" _

_"She was but..." Zuko began to answer but Aang's raised hand halted him in mid sentence. _

_"Nevermind. If she wants me to know, she'll tell me. We used to confide in each other. I know you haven't been with the group long but things have changed a lot between Katara and me. "_

_Aang was right. _

_He was still considered an outsider by the rest of the gaang but being on the outside had its advantages. He could see what the others were missing. Aang was miserable and though he managed to hide it rather well, for Zuko, the obvious distance was growing within their tight knit group._

_Especially between Aang and Katara. He had chased them for over a year. Their closeness was gone._

_Zuko had felt more than a twinge of guilt when Katara took his side and decided to steal Appa without Aang's permission. He had heard of the desperation that had taken hold of him when the bison had disappeared in Ba Sing Se._

_He could only imagine it would be tenfold if Katara was also gone. _

_"Now that you are part of the group I expect you to watch each other's backs."_

_"Katara's?" Zuko asked hoping to make the other boy blush._

_"Especially Katara's." The nomad's face was serene with no trace of embarrassment. "I don't think I have to tell you how I feel about her."_

_Zuko could feel his own face heat at Aang's candor. He had never been that honest with anybody and he was flattered that Aang felt comfortable confiding in him. "Are you not gonna be with us, is that what you're telling me?"_

_"I don't know where and if I'll be going anywhere. These last few days I have been having visions."_

_"What kind of visions?"_

_"I'm not sure but I always see myself in this giant forest. I walk and shout out but nobody hears me or responds. Then the trees burst into flames and I'm plunged into an icy ocean. Usually that is when I wake up." Aang kicked at the water sending a new set of ripples scurrying._

_"I'm not worried what the visions mean. I know that the Firelord is the avatar's responsibility, my responsibility. I can't expect anybody to follow me into that. The monks had taught me that the avatar's path could be a lonely one."_

_"If the visions don't keep you up; what does? What are you worried about?"_

_"I need to know that Katara has someone to count on. Somebody besides Sokka and Toph. Somebody that will pull her back from getting herself killed."_

_"You think she'll follow you and get herself killed?" Zuko asked harshly but softened his tone when he saw Aang cringe._

_"If she dies and I survive…she is what anchors me to the world. Without her here I might as well cease to be and let a new Avatar be born."_

_Zuko had not expected that answer and was more than a little stunned. No wonder Katara was so hacked off when he had begun training Aang._

_"She probably doesn't see me like I see her. Either way she'll need a friend in case I don't come back. We've been through a lot together."_

_He realized that Aang was talking more to himself than to him but seeing the downcast expression made Zuko want to tell him about Katara's deadly warning but he nodded instead. Aang stood up and patted the older boy. "Be that friend. Please take care of her, promise me, Zuko."_

_"I promise."_

_Zuko let Aang's footsteps fade away. He sat on the dock until the sun fell into the ocean. Twilight was upon him and yet he couldn't move. Aang's absolute belief that he would fall alongside Ozai disturbed him._

_The war had changed him, he was no longer the happy child that he had first encountered in the snow._

Zuko barely rolled laying on his side, the dark bloody sky fading in and out of focus. He rolled again, a groan flowing out of him as he flopped onto his stomach. He hadn't counted on his sister's madness or Katara's stubbornness.

He should have listened to Aang. He should have kept her behind. A dry laugh stuck in his throat. **'Wild camelephants wouldn't have dragged her away from the fight.' **She was determined to help Aang anyway she could. Zuko regretted not letting Katara follow the younger boy after his outburst.

In a lifetime of regrets that was a big one. Now Aang was gone fighting somewhere completely unaware that Katara had cried out his name in her sleep. That she had woken up and sat in the dark staring at the place where he and Zuko had trained as if willing Aang to reappear.

That once Zuko had come out she had clung to him, begging him to reassure her that Aang knew how she felt about him.

He inched towards Katara and Azula but they were occupied. Katara was battling for both of them.

His hand stretched out to tell her that Aang loved her that she could not die because if Aang survived he would die for sure if she wasn't anchoring him to the world, but it was too much effort and so he blacked out.

**'It's quiet, it's over.'**

Zuko tasted the dirt of his palace home. Katara strained to turn him onto his back. He blinked at her ready to confess the last conversation he had with Aang. If he was to die, he wanted her to know why he'd done it. He did it because you always protected your friends.

Her hands were cold on his abdomen but quickly warmed until it was hot enough to hurt. The glow wore off and he understood what she had done. "Thank you, Katara."

"I should be thanking you," she said tears running down her face.

"Aang will be happy to see you." Zuko said gripping her hand while he carefully got to his feet.

"You think so?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, he loves you very much." Zuko replied. He bent down to push back his defeated sister's hair back. "Thank you for surviving and saving me. Thank you for letting me keep my promise." Zuko said clasping her hand to pull himself away from Azula.

Katara looked at him strangely but her attention was pulled from him as the airship landed. Sukki and Toph disembarked with Sokka limping behind them. Katara's face fell but brightened as she was pulled into her older brother's arms.

Zuko walked over and looped Sokka's arm over his shoulder. Zuko led him to the steps to sit as Sokka told him about the battle while Sukki and Toph made their way to Azula's passed out form.

"What happened here? Looks like you guys kicked butt." Toph said joining them on the steps.

"Zuko saved my life." Katara said quietly.

"Did he?" Aang's tired voice broke through the chatter.

Zuko observed as Katara's face relaxed as she met up with Aang at the mouth of the mangled airship. **'It was strange but now that he thought about it her eyes were always following the younger boy. Everywhere they went she had kept a close eye on him. How interesting that he was seeing it now.'**

Zuko stood up taken aback by Aang's calm demeanor. He had hoisted over his shoulder what appeared to be an unconscious Ozai. Aang laid the passed out former Firelord on the ground. Katara stared at Aang in wonder but the boy barely paid her any attention.

Zuko approached his father. "Is he dead?"

"No, but he won't harm anybody else." White light briefly overshadowed his gray eyes as he responded, "I made sure of that."

"How?" Katara and Zuko asked in unison, a tone of new respect in their voices.

Aang smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "I took his bending away."

Zuko glanced at his father once more. **'Aang took his bending?'**

"Oh, Aang," she cried.

Everyone was startled when Katara leapt onto the battle weary avatar including the avatar who only managed to soften their blow as they tumbled to the ground. "I'm sorry, Aang. So sorry. I was a jerk. Tell me you haven't let me go. I was afraid I'd never get to tell you. " Each one of her declarations peppered by a kiss.

"Tell me what?" Aang asked drawing her closer by her hair loopie.

**'He is so playing dumb.' **Zuko thought, **'he couldn't blame him if that had been Mai he would have done it too if only for the obvious pleasure of having the girl he loved close for a little bit longer.' **

Caugh up in his thoughts of Mai, Zuko missed whatever Katara had said and what Aang had responded. However it was easy enough to decipher what they had told each other as Katara was pink and Aang was beaming. A cheesy grin displacing his earlier somber look.

Zuko figured Aang better hurry and get up before Sokka hobbled his way over to haul her off him and beat him to within an inch of his young life. **'Avatar or not she was still Sokka's little sister,' **Zuko thought as Sokka was indeed hobbling over as fast as his broken leg would allow.

Aang's gaze collided with Zuko's amused one over Katara's shoulder. Aang mouthed, "thank you" and Zuko replied in kind. Right at the moment that Sokka came into his line of vision.

Sokka pulled his baby sister off her new boyfriend and in return received both hands encased in ice. Zuko stepped up and offered to melt it off. He kept a straight face as he spied Katara leading Aang around a corner, her arms beginning to wind around the airbender's neck.

He thought about Mai and wondered if she would treat him the same when they finally reunited. A sudden gust of wind blew around them and Sokka screeched as his flame ventured a little closer than he had intended.

"Where's Aang and Katara?" Sokka asked looking around suspiciously for the new couple.

**'Katara saved my life, I owe her at least a bit of time.'**

Zuko shrugged. Some things never change.


End file.
